2 Oakland Community Colleges Plan to Merge

A controversial plan to merge two Oakland, Calif., community colleges is moving forward after the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees signed off last week.

Proponents of the move say it’ll cut down administrative costs amid enrollment declines and long-standing budget challenges. Critics argue the move is hasty and the district’s two largest colleges should preserve their distinct identities.

Laney and Merritt Colleges will become Oakland City College by fall 2027 as part of a broader district transformation plan introduced last summer. The plan also includes goals to expand online degree programs, dual enrollment and evening and weekend classes. Both Laney and Merritt will continue to operate as their own campuses. The Peralta Community College District acknowledged that some positions will be impacted but didn’t provide further detail.

District leaders say Peralta needs a drastic revamp. Enrollment has plummeted across the district, including at Laney and Merritt, in recent years. Laney College’s head count fell from 17,698 in 2019–20 to 9,828 in 2024–25, according to the district. Merritt College’s enrollment similarly dropped from 11,856 to 7,195 over that same period. Peralta has also struggled with budget deficits for more than a decade, according to the district’s website, and it is contending with the rising costs affecting higher ed institutions across the country. The district laid off staff last year but now projects to meet its budget for the next two years.

Adding to the challenges, the district also has four colleges within a nine-mile radius, which sets colleges up to compete with one another, said Tammeil Gilkerson, chancellor of the Peralta Community College District.

Gilkerson described the merger as part of a “pruning to grow” approach. She hopes getting rid of redundant or underperforming programs across the district, not just at the two colleges, will allow Peralta to invest in programs each campus does uniquely well.

“This is all about students and a community that I love, and for a district to meet the mission that it set out to do and be able to do it thoughtfully and responsibly,” Gilkerson said. Financial and operational challenges have been a distraction from “actually having a true plan that … allows us a pathway forward” focused on student success.

At last week’s board meeting, Tina Vasconcellos, the district’s vice chancellor, highlighted dozens of programs in which she said about 90 percent of students didn’t complete or transferred out.

The merger could help “redirect resources” and better “package the programs in a way, schedule in a way, that students can achieve their goals,” she said.

Facing Pushback

The merger, however, has faced opposition.

At the June 9 board meeting, faculty, students and staff argued the decision-making process moved too quickly without sufficient input. A petition against the move, authored by Merritt College bioscience professor Gisele Giorgi, has garnered over 300 signatures. The petition argued the merger could cost the district at least $3 million per year, though district leaders say the move will pay off in the long run.

“There are so many questions still left unanswered,” Giorgi said at the meeting. “We really need to plan better. If we’re going to do this thing, we need to do it really well.”

Laney College computer science professor Johnnie Williams urged the board to take another year to think through the plan.

“I’m neither here nor there on whether it’s a good plan or not,” he said at the meeting. “But the details are not clear. And to me, that’s a gamble … I don’t know if it’s right or wrong, but I know it’s wrong right now.”

Stefani Devito, a mental health clinician at Merritt’s wellness center, agreed that the plan isn’t necessarily a problem, but the timeline felt rushed.

“Operationally, from my ground-level perspective, we cannot do what needs to be done to become Oakland City College in time for fall 2027 enrollment,” Devito said. “Our students deserve the smoothest and most organized transition possible, and nothing ruins a good idea like rushed implementation.”

Some speakers also pointed to Merritt College’s historic role in the Black Panthers movement as reason to sustain its distinct identity and legacy; two of its students co-founded the movement in 1966. Others worried student services, and their funding, would take a hit.

Gilkerson insisted that the colleges’ identities and services would remain intact as campuses of one college. And if the merger hits roadblocks, the process could be slowed. She also emphasized that the transformation plan was born out of dialogue with students, professors, staff, administrators and shared governance bodies across the district.

“We have hundreds of people who’ve been involved in helping shape this plan,” she said. But shared governance “doesn’t mean everybody agrees.”